The Progressive: An Autopsy

Its a tough job, but someone has to do it.

What is the core belief of the progressive? Is it possible to summarize that belief in a single sentence? It is possible.

A progressive is someone who believes in the equality of all human identities.

This is the essential progressive belief. But this statement is somewhat static. Let us attempt a more dynamic construction.

A progressive is someone who is personally engaged in creating a new kind of society in which all human identities will be made equal.

Here is the core progressive belief.

But what, exactly, does it mean to believe in the “the equality of all human identities?” Now the honest answer to this question is that this belief means nothing at all, that it is nothing more than a form of delusional thinking.

It is delusional in two respects.

First, it is delusional from the standpoint of empirical evidence. And that evidence is overwhelming, at least for those who are not delusional.

Second, it is delusional from the standpoint of logic. Just as there can be no such thing as a “square circle,” there can be no such thing as an “equality of identities.” The word “equal” means “the same.” And if all human identities are the same, then there are no human identities. There is just the one identity: that of being human. To possess a real human identity is to possess something that is differentfrom – that is unequal to– every other human identity.

But the progressive is someone who is psychologically incapable of processing this reality.

Take the progressive slogan: “Celebrate diversity!” If that slogan is taken literally, it is a celebration of inequality, because that is what diversity means. But the full progressive slogan, which is always implied and never stated, is: “Celebrate diversity because we’re all alike!” That is a logical contradiction. Human identities either really are diverse – they areunequal – or there are no real human identities.

But again: The progressive is someone who is psychologically incapable of processing this reality.

This is not because the progressive is stupid. Indeed, many progressives are quite intelligent. But the progressive is someone who has made the conscious decision to not live in the real world. Progressive belief is a shield against the world. And this means that the more intelligent a progressive is the more delusional he will be.

Which prompts a question: do progressives really believe in “the equality of all human identities” or are they lying?

But as anyone who has ever dealt with a progressive knows, the progressive really does appear to believe in “the equality of all human identities.” If a lie detector test was given, one would expect the progressive to pass that test. Thus the anti-progressive is faced with a continuing social dilemma. For the anti-progressive must always keep silent when the progressive publicly witnesses to his faith, since any direct challenge to the core progressive belief amounts to a declaration of war. This is why most people keep silent when progressives speak or else offer temporizing arguments that do not directly challenge the core progressive belief.

How does the progressive rationally justify his core belief in “the equality of all human identities?”

Progressive theory transforms the concept of “human identity” so that “an identity” becomes only a “mode” of being human. According to progressive theory, an “identity” is something that can only belong to an individual. It is an “aspect” of that individual's “personhood.” But a “human identity” has no objective reality beyond that personal identification, since that would mean that real identities exist and that human beings are inherently unequal.

So what any normal person would consider to be a real human identity, meaning an identity that exists in radical inequality to all other identities, is to the progressive nothing more than a “false belief” about the nature of reality. And furthermore, it is a belief that progressive intends to abolish. To the progressive, the normal view of human identities is objectively evil. Anyone who states that there are real human identities, meaning anyone who states that human identities are radically unequal, is a racist, a sexist, and a xenophobe. Anyone who believes that real human identities exist is an enemy of the human future.

If you dye your hair pink, that is an expression of your personal identity. If you are a Christian, that is an expression of your personal identity. To the progressive, these are morally equivalent statements. But to be a believing Christian as Christians have always understood that belief, as constituting an objective truth about the nature of reality and society, is something that will no longer be tolerated by a progressive society. And this is because real Christian belief – the belief that Christ alone is truth and that Christ is Lord over all – directly contradicts the core progressive truth that every human identity is equal. To the progressive, a "religion" can be nothing more than a personal aspiration to the divine. It can have no other objective reality.

However, let us put the problem of Christian belief to one side for the moment. Let us instead focus on the progressive's belief in “101 genders.”

To the progressive mind, there are now “101 genders,” with more genders yet to come. And these "101 genders" are “human identities” in the same sense in which chocolate is an “identity” of ice cream. In other wordes, they are the “101 flavors” of “being human,” which is the only real human identity. The very multiplication of genders by the progressive is considered to be “proof” that gender is just a “mode” of being human. The progressive thus multiplies genders for a strategic reason: to make the whole idea of gender “fluid.” Any identity that is called a “gender” no longer has an objective meaning. It has a meaning only for the person who claims that particular "identity."

In reality, there are two sexes and no genders at all. And the two sexes are real human identities, because they are radically unequal identities.

And that is something the progressive can no longer admit. Nor will the progressive any longer tolerate anyone who publicly states that there are only two sexes and no genders. Anyone who makes such a public statement is now guilty of “hate.”

The progressive, of course, must believe that men and women are substantively alike, because if they are substantively different kinds of human beings then the core progressive belief in the “equality of human identities” is revealed to be a lie. And so the two sexes must be substantively alik, with only the "accidents" of different plumbing. And this is why the progressive belief in the existence of 101 genders is also necessary, because the existence of 101 genders constitutes “proof” that men and women are jsut two of "101 genders," every one of which is "equal" to the other.

In short, progressives have declared war on reality.

More precisely, progressive have declared war on God. The progressive promise of the creation of “the equality of all human identities” is the same promise as that made by Satan in Eden: "You shall be as gods."

And this is why the progressive also believes that anyone who is anti-progressive is someone who is either ignorant or evil.

For the progressive, there are only two kinds of anti-progressive.

First, there are those people who are ignorant. What they lack is the proper education. Such people can be called “proto-progressives,” since all that they lack is the proper education. But then, second, there are those people who are willfully and consciously anti-progressive. They are people who are “uneducable.” They have deliberately refused to become enlightened human beings. These people are called “reactionaries” and “fascists.” They are the enemies of the human future.

The progressive intends that all reactionaries will be socially quarantined, publicly discredited, and publicly silenced. This is because the future of humanity depends upon this quarantine. Today’s progressive control of the central state (meaning control of the bureaucracy, no matter who is elected), of mass education (most anti-progressives were long ago purged or have been silenced), and of the mass media (unfortunately the Internet has temporarily enabled the creation of an anti-progressive alternative to the news), will make that quarantine effective. But the progressive believes that reactionary beliefs are doomed to disappear in any case, because the future of humanity requires that disappearance.

Today's progressive believes that he is in the process of creating a coalition of “oppressed human identities” that will now create the progressive future.

The progressive believes that there is just one thing that stands in the way of the progressive future. And that is the continuing existence of something called “white, male privilege.” Once this "privilege” has been abolished, the forces of reaction will dissolve and the progressive future will be created.

However, there is a problem with this progressive belief.

For his imagined coalition of “oppressed identities” is actually a collection of very disparate groups who are far more reactionary in their beliefs than the most reactionary group of white males. To take only one example: a radically far higher percentage of ordinary blacks and Hispanics consider homosexuals to be perverts than do white males. As for the “oppressed identity” called Muslim, most Muslims believe that homosexuality should be outlawed or that homosexuals should be put to death.

And this barely scratches the surface of the reactionary character of the progressive’s imagined “oppressed identities.”

But this does not faze the progressive at all, since progressive theory tells him that these "oppressed groups" are in the process of becoming unified in a common “intersectional future" in which they will “recognize” that they all have the same interests. Progressive theory states that these “oppressed identities” are currently reactionary only because of their “experience of oppression.” Once "white, male privilege" is abolished, the dialectic of history ensures that these “oppressed identities” will be led by progressives from within their own ranks, who will create the "intersectional future." Indeed, White progressives really believe that their “oppressed identity groups” have no human agency of their own, but exist as the sock puppets of the progressive revolution.

None of this has anything to do with reality.

Black people, brown people, female people, homosexual people, Muslim people: these are just a few of the “oppressed identities” whose “experience of oppression” will dialectically transform them into the human vanguard that will create the progressive revolution. White progressives actually believe that “advanced individuals” within these groups are already more genuinely progressive than any white progressive, simply because the “authenticity” of their "experience.”

Onc again: None of this has anything to do with reality. It is a political fantasy.

However, there is one “identity group” that must remain under a permanent suspicion. And that is the identity group this is called “white males.”

This includes even those white males who are progressive. Although the progressive white male may be fully engaged in an ongoing personal struggle to “overcome” his “white, male privilege,” he is still problematic as a human being. And the white male progressive recognizes this of himself. Since he is fully progressive, he “fully understands” that it is his “white, male privilege” that has created the hell on earth that is the human past. That "privilege" has made him into the twisted creature that he is today. All white males, including even the most progressive, will become fully human only after the revolution.

The white male is to the progressive what the Jew was to the Nazi.

However, there is one difference. No Jew could ever become a member of the Aryan race, while the male progressive dreams of a final liberation from his oppressive identity. And this motivates him to work for that day of revolution. The white progressive male demonstrates, through his daily commitment to his personal guilt as a white male, that he works for that final revolution.

As for white males who willfully and consciously reject progressive belief as a delusion, they are the enemies of the human race.

However, the anti-progressive white male is not the most kind of evil human being. This is because, in a sense, the anti-progressive white male is a “victim.” He is the victim of his “white, male privilege.” Thus, in a way, he cannot help being evil. And that means that there are human beings who are more evil than the white male.

This would be any black person, any brown person, any female person, or any homosexual person, who willfully and consciously rejects progressive belief. They are more evil than the white male because they have betrayed their own identity. By rejecting progressivism as delusional, they have become the willing “slaves” of "white, male privilege.” And that makes them the most degraded human being of all.

Anyone who has ever witnessed a white, male progressive verbally berate an anti-progressive black male, or an anti-progressive female, has seen a burning anger that far exceeds any hatred directed at an anti-progressive white male.

But again: None of this has anything to do with reality.

Which prompts a question: why would any human being willingly believe the kind of nonsense that the progressive believes?

At this point, a psychological analysis is certainly called for, since the progressive appears to be suffering from a psychological disorder. But while it is undoubtedly true that a much higher percentage of progressives are mentally ill than the percentage found in the general population, most progressives are not mentally ill. Therefore a more comprehensive explanation is needed for the existence of progressive belief.

Progressivism is best understood as a pagan religious cult.

Most progressives, of course, will deny that progressivism is a religion. And in part, this denial is rationally founded. Today the word “religion” is generally understood to mean a set of beliefs about God and progressivism is not a set of beliefs about God. Also, most progressives consider belief in God to be compatible with progressive beliefs. Or, more precisely, most progressives consider belief in God to be compatible with progressive beliefs so long as belief in God is defined in progressive terms.

And here we have the key to understanding the religious character of progressivism.

However, we first need a more accurate definition of the word “religion.” Instead of limiting that word so that it refers only to beliefs about God, what if we define a “religious belief” as being any belief about the nature of reality? And if this is the accurate definition of the word “religion,” then progressivism is a religion. For progressivism is a set of beliefs about the nature of reality.

Everyone who believes a theory about the nature of reality has a religion.

And since every sentient human being believes a theory about the nature of reality, every sentient human being has a religion.

However, if progressivism is a religion, the progressive faces a major contradiction in his belief system. This is because every progressive believes that “religion” should never be allowed to define the political and social order. It is core to progressive belief that society must be made “secular,” by which the progressive means that society must be made “non-religious.”

Indeed, progressive theory teaches that a “religious belief” is something that is socially legitimate only if it is completely “private and personal.” A "religious belief" should never be allowed to shape either politics or society, because that would mean that some people were imposing their “religious beliefs” upon others. But if progressivism is a religious belief, this would mean that progressives were imposing their “private religious beliefs” upon others, and that they were using the power of the state to do so.

This is why progressives can never admit that progressivism is a religion, because it is only non-progressives who are trying to impose their "private religious beliefs” upon others. Progressives, on the other hand, believe that they possess a completely “neutral” set of beliefs about the nature of reality and society, which is why they believe that they can impose their beliefs upon others.

So why do progressives believe that their understanding of reality is neutral?

Again: progressives must believe this, because progressives believe that they are in the process of creating a society based upon “the equality of all human identities.” And to the progressive mind, you can’t get more "neutral” than this. In reality, of course, progressive belief is a pagan religious delusion that the progressive fully intends to enforce upon everyone using the power of the state.

Progressivism is a crypto-theocracy that is in the final stages of replacing Christianity as the spiritual basis for Western society.

All societies that have ever existed, as well as all societies that will ever exist, are founded upon some particular religious belief. The primary religious belief of a society always determines the nature of that society. The cult always creates the culture.

Every Western society, including American society, was once a Christian society. In America, religious freedom meant freedom of individual belief, and that religious freedom was based upon the specific Christian belief that the individual alone is responsible for his salvation. America as a society, on other hand, was always understood by Americans to be a Christian society in both its laws and social customs. This was the belief of virtually every American, including those who were not Christians, as late as 1960.

And that means that the triumph of progressive belief in our time only became possible because of the spiritual collapse of American Christian belief. The nature of this spiritual collapse is revealed in today’s social reality that even most American Christians now agree, with the progressive, that progressive beliefs are “religiously neutral.” The most conservative Christians of today condemn progressives as “secularists,” therefore agreeing, with the progressive that progressive beliefs are “non-religious.” Virtually no American Christian today will call progressives pagans.

It is the American Christian of this progressive lie that the spiritual triumph of progressive paganism became inevitable.

Of course, today, a solid majority of Americans continue to call themselves Christians. But formal religious identifications are always the last thing to disappear when a society’s religion changes. And that formal identification is already in radical decline. According to the polling data, before 1960 fewer than ten percent of Americans claimed to be "spiritual, but not religious.” This was the accepted American way of signaling that they were religious but not really Christian. During the Baby Boom era, this percentage jumped to nearly 20% of the population, or one in five Baby Boomers. Today, among those Americans under thirty, almost 1 in 3 describe themselves as being “spiritual but not religious.”

Here we can trace the spiritual collapse of American Christian belief.

It is a core dogma of progressive belief that the main enemy of the coming revolution is “white, male privilege.” However, this “privilege” is nothing more than a stand-in for the real progressive enemy: the believing Christian. If today's progressives remain focused on “white, male privilege,” this is only because they still fear to undertake a direct public assault upon Christian belief. For such an assault might still have the unintended consequence of igniting a mass revival of Christian belief. And this is something that the progressive still fears.

But the progressive does not completely ignore the centrality of the Christian threat. The core Christian belief that truth is found only in Christ and that Christ is “Lord over all,” is now considered by progressives to be a definition of “religious hate.” This is because the claim that Christ alone is truth and that Christ alone rules over all things strikes at the very heart of the progressive belief in “the equality of all human identities.”

For the progressive, there can be only one legitimate form of religious belief. And that is any religious belief that supports the core progressive religious belief in “the equality of all identities.” Therefore the progressive is on a permanent war footing against any public expression of genuine Christian belief or against any public influence exercised by Christians as Christians. To the progressive, this kind of religion is now morally and spiritually unacceptable. The only permissible kind of Christian belief is the belief held by the “progressive Christian,” who alone will be permitted to enter the progressive future.

Who is the “progressive Christian”?

This would be any self-identified Christian who is convinced that his core Christian belief that “Christ is Lord over all” has become his spiritual motivation to create a societyin which Christ is not Lord at all.

The “progressive Christian” intends that what he calls “the love of Christ” will thereby radiate through the progressive society of the future in the general absence of belief in Christ and also in the absence of Christian morality. The “progressive Christian” believes that Christ Himself teaches the spiritual necessity for creating a progressive society in which Christ is not Lord at all.

It is not that the “progressive Christian” has reluctantly resigned himself to witnessing to the love of Christ in a pagan society. It is that the “progressive Christian” joyfully welcomes the creation of that pagan society as the ultimate expression of Christ’s love, with that love now being defined as “the equality of all human identities.”

The “progressive Christian” serves Satan.

What is the progressive “end game?”

Most progressives are in the dark when it comes to the progressive end game. Indeed, this is a reason why people become progressives, since they are in the dark when it comes to the final goal.

In the progressive end game, all human identities are to be abolished except for the identity of being human. It is not just the identities of “white, heterosexual male” or of “believing Christian” that are to be abolished. All human identities are to be abolished, because that is the meaning of “the equality of all human identities.”

This would include the abolition of blacks, of browns, of women, of homosexuals, and of Muslims.

Of course, most progressives will never be brought to an understanding that this is the progressive goal. Instead, the average progressive will continue to insist that real goal is the "liberation” of those “oppressed identities” so they may become “fully themselves.” The average progressive is simply uncomprehending of the real meaning of his core belief. He is psychologically incapable of processing the full meaning of the “equality of all human identities.”

The progressive revolution entails the disappearance of all human identities.

This is the goal of spiritual lunatics. But it does not matter. It is the goal of the progressive, whether that goal is actually achievable or not.

Throughout history, human beings have always acted irrationally, irresponsibly, and in direct contradiction to their own interests. Man, as the scriptures state, is as prone to sin “as the sparks fly upward.” History is the litany of human disaster. The delusional beliefs of the progressive are unusual only in that progressivism is an historically unique system of delusional belief.

Progressivism is also the product of a particular time and place. What progressives today believe was never believed before and will never be believed again. At some point in the future, the progressive delusion will come to an end. Few people will any longer take progressive belief seriously and progressivism will no longer control society. Progressivism will die and will never return.

Today, however, progressives control all the major institutions of Western society. And this is why Western society, including American society, is in radical decline. But progressive belief is not the cause of this decline. Progressive belief exists only to rationalize that decline. Progressive belief magically transforms that decline into a “sunny uplands” of an inevitable progressive future. It exists to rhetorically transform societal collapse into a spiritual fantasy.

The coming destruction of the West, including the coming destruction of America, at this point probably cannot be averted. The progressive delusion is now so dominant in Western societies that there is probably no way out except through that destruction. And this means that whatever comes next will neither resemble our present society nor our past society. In America, there will be no return to the Constitution or to the American political experiment. That is now over. History moves in only one direction. The society that emerges from the coming destruction will be built upon the ruins of that past.

The coming destruction of Western society is inseparable from the coming destruction of progressive belief.

While progressive belief is a delusion, it is a wildly successful delusion. It is successful not only because it serves the psychological purpose of rationalizing spiritual decadence, but also because it serves a necessary material interest.

As the old Latin tag puts it, cui bono? Who benefits? Who materially benefits from the delusional beliefs of the progressive? It is only because there are those who materially benefit from that delusion that the delusion exists.

To answer the question of who benefits, let us begin by making a list of the kinds of equality that the progressive intends to create in society. Women are to be made equal to men; homosexuals (and other “sexual minorities”) are to be made equal to heterosexuals; blacks are to be made equal to whites; the poor are to be made equal to the rich; groups in society with non-European identities are to be made equal to groups with European identities; an equality is to be established between humanity and the environment; an equality is to be established between humanity and the animals – and so on.

Now what do all these various things have in common? The answer is that they have nothing in common, except that they are all to be made equal. And they are to be made equal by the same political method. The equality of all human relationships in society is to be defined, and enforced, by the agents of the central state and by those social authorities deputized by the state. And since progressivism is a belief about the universal nature of human equality, a global super-state is to be created, whose agents and deputized social authorities will define, and enforce, a universal equality.

In short, the material goal of progressivism is to create a universal slavery.

The progressive, of course, will deny that this is his goal. The progressive will instead insist that his goal is to create a universal equality. So which is it? Does progressive belief exist to create a universal human equality or a universal human slavery?

The answer to this question is to be found in the psychology of the individual progressive. For the individual progressive truly believes that every normal human relationship – meaning any relationship that is not controlled by the agents of the central state or by the state's deputized social authorities – is inherently unequal. Therefore the creation of a new kind of political and social order based upon “the equality of all human identities” necessarily requires the creation of a system in which there will be an unceasing surveillance and control of every human relationship.

And the individual progressive is completely convinced that the central state is the one institution that can be safely entrusted with this kind of authority, since the individual progressive is also convinced that this state will be controlled by people like himself.

Here we witness the purest of political fantasies.

Anyone who understands the true nature of power knows that in any contest between those who want to use the power of the state to create a universal equality and those who simply want to use that power to control other people is a contest that can have only one possible winner. Those who desire to use the power of the state to control other people will win.

And this is why the progressive quest for the creation of a universal human equality can never be anything other than a mask behind which is created a universal human slavery.

Progressive belief exists to serve the material interests of power; it has no other material purpose.

This does not mean that most progressives are lying when they state that they want to use the power of the state to create a universal human equality. Indeed, most progressive are not lying. They are not liars, but fools.

Jefferson White is also the author of the book The Political Theory of Christ